On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 4:33 PM, Alan B. Pearce wrote: >>I think Chinglish would not totally disappear any time soon. >>However, things are getting better as more and more Chinese >>students are learning and use English, maybe to a point of >>spending too much time on English. > > Having recently had a couple of Chinese PhD students live with us, while on > secondment in the UK, it has been interesting to 'rate' their English. Both > could speak good English, but one has a decidedly American accent, as she > learnt a lot of her spoken English from watching American movies and TV > series on the internet ... US Accent has been popular in China for quite some time. About 20+ years back, BBC's Follow Me was very popular in Chinese TVs. Later, Americal English started to get popular even though a lot of the teachers were having more like British accent. I believe the exams are still using the British standards now for spelling and pronunciations. But the influences from the American movies/TVs are really great. Actually I was listening to BBC and VOA through short wave radio to improve my English then and admired the US accent more at that time. Now I still listen to BBC through FM radio almost every day. There is no VOA here in Singapore. VOA= Voice Of America BBC=British Broadcast Corporation -- Xiaofan http://mcuee.blogspot.com -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist